High School Heroes
by Trillian Astra
Summary: Peter Petrelli starts high school, and starts to make new friends... and then he and his friends start developing strange abilities.AU, no slash, mostly canon relationships. Also not mine. Enjoy, please R&R. NEW CHAPTERS ADDED, finally.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Sooo…. I've been planning a fic like this a while ago, and I've finally got around to starting it. Basically, I quite like writing "high school" fics, so I thought I'd try a Heroes version. **

**You've probably guessed that this is an AU fic – ages range from 14 (Claire) to 18 (Nathan), so obviously Nathan isn't Claire's dad and Micah doesn't exist yet. Relationships will be pretty much as they are in the show, at least to start with. It will start off with the usual high school activities – there will be a prom/dance of some kind, and I may bring the "save the cheerleader" plotline in.**

**Disclaimer: Obviously, I am not Tim Kring and I don't own Heroes. I really wish I did though. **

**Finally, enjoy the story, and please give me a review afterwards.**

Peter Petrelli woke to sunlight streaming in through his bedroom window. He rubbed his eyes, pulling himself into a sitting position and saw his mother standing at the end of his bed. "Mom?"  
"Come on, Peter, it's your first day of school, remember?"

"Oh, yeah…"

"I'll let you get up now, I'll wait for you downstairs. I want to drive you myself on your first day of high school."

"Uh, sure."

Mrs Petrelli left the room quickly, and Peter started to get dressed. Before he left the room, though, his gaze fell on the letter on his desk. The acceptance letter he'd received, saying that he had a place at Bennet Academy, a private and extremely prestigious high school in New York City. It was expected that he would go there, ever since his older brother Nathan had been admitted three years before. As Peter re-read the letter for the millionth time, he thought once more of how Nathan was such a perfect student – he would graduate at the end of this school year, and was tipped to be valedictorian of his class.

Peter wasn't as academically gifted as his brother – not stupid, he just didn't have a perfect record of A's and A+'s. He usually managed B's, a few A's and the occasional C in class. He was a bright boy, but his tendency to daydream in class (and even fall asleep completely sometimes) damaged his scores. But he was liked by practically everyone, and was known as very kind, considerate and caring.

He dropped the letter back on his desk, pushed his dark bangs back from his face, and headed downstairs.

After grabbing a couple pieces of toast and some juice for breakfast, he got his jacket and school bag, and headed for the car with his mother. When they pulled up outside the entrance to the school, Mrs Petrelli was about to get out of the car.

"Mom, it's okay, I can walk through the door by myself."

"I just need to be sure you're okay…"

"I'll be fine. I'm fifteen, Mom, not a preschooler."  
"Of course, dear."

"Okay, so I'll go now, yeah?"

"Yes, dear. Do you have your lunch?"  
"_Yes_, Mom."

"Well, have a good first day. I'm sure you'll make lots of new friends."  
"Uh, yeah, okay… bye, Mom."

"Goodbye, dear."

Peter made a hasty exit from the car, before his mother did something really embarrassing like kiss him. He hurried inside, so quickly that he collided with a pretty blonde girl who was heading inside as well, clutching an armful of books which promptly fell to the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there.." He bent to pick up her books, smiling at her.

"It's okay, I wasn't really paying attention either."

"No, really, it's my fault…"

The girl shrugged. "Um… okay, then. I guess I forgive you."

"What's your name? I'm Peter."

"Hi, Peter, I'm Claire. Is this your first day?"  
"Yeah, you?"

"Uh-huh. What homeroom are you in?"

"Um…" Peter pulled out his timetable. "Room 17A."

"Hey, we're in the same class… neat."

"I guess so… if we knew how to get there."

"Oh, don't worry, I know where it is."

"I thought this was your first day."

"It is." At Peter's confused expression, Claire sighed and realised that she'd have to explain it, yet again. "My dad is the Principal here. Mr Bennet, you know? I know my way around."

"Oh… you're the Principal's daughter."

"Yeah."

At that point the bell rang to tell the students it was time for classes to begin, and Peter and Claire headed for room 17A together. They found seats next to each other in class, and were soon talking in low whispers – until the teacher told them to be quiet, when they switched to notes. By the time the lunch break arrived, Peter knew that Claire was 14 and that she would have preferred to go to a school where her father wasn't the principal, and Claire knew all about Peter being from a powerful, and very rich, family.

They headed for the cafeteria together… only to find that there were no free tables. Claire spotted Charlie, a girl she had known since preschool, sitting with some other girls – some of whom wore cheerleaders' outfits – so she headed over to join them. Peter was left standing in the middle of the cafeteria, alone. He wandered around the tables for a few moments, but no-one offered him a place to sit.

Eventually, a pretty brown-haired girl came up to him. "Excuse me?" Peter noticed she had an accent, but he couldn't quite place it. "Yes?"

"Do you want a place to sit? You can join our table if you like." She gestured over at a nearby table, where a serious-looking blonde girl, two Japanese boys, and three other boys were sitting.

"Uh, thanks. I'm Peter, by the way."

"Nice to meet you, Peter. I'm Hana, I'm a sophomore." She sat down back at the table, and pointed out each of the others to him. "And this is Audrey, Hiro, Ando, Zach, Ted and Matt."

"Well, uh, nice to meet you all, I guess." He sat down in the free space, next to the boy called Hiro. "So, are any of you new here as well?"

Three of them answered yes – Hiro, Ando and Zach. The others were all sophomores like Hana, it seemed.


	2. Chapter 2

"Stop following me, Nathan!"

"Please, Meredith, listen to me…"

"No! Just get away from me."

Meredith Gordon was pretty, smart, and one of the most popular girls in the senior year at Bennet Academy. Until recently, she'd been dating Nathan Petrelli. But she had just ended the relationship, and Nathan wasn't about to let it go. She strode away down the hallway, and he ran after her. "Mere, please… just stop for a minute, talk to me."

She stopped, sighed, and turned to face him. "What, Nathan? What could you possibly have to say to me right now?"  
"I can try to explain."

"Okay, I'm listening. Make it good. What happened to us, Nate?"

"I'm sorry. I just… I'll always care about you, you know…"

"Nathan, I know. I see you looking at her. I know what happened at the dance."

"You… saw."

"Yes! How could you, Nathan? She's my best friend. And you know, all this time I was asking her if she liked anyone, and she told me about this guy, but she would never tell me a name or anything, and then I find out who this guy is – you!"

"I didn't know…"

"Yeah, that much is obvious. You know, for someone who's supposed to be so smart, you can be pretty dumb, Petrelli."

"Meredith… I was stupid… I know what I did, and I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you… how I feel about you is different to how I feel about her."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes. I… I don't love her, Meredith."

Meredith listened to him struggle to explain himself, then looked over his shoulder and smiled at what she saw behind him.

"Meredith?"

"Oh… you know, Nathan, I think you have bigger things to worry about right now."

"What?"

"Turn around."

Nathan turned around slowly, and saw Heidi Butler standing behind him – and she was fuming. "Oh no…"

Heidi strode up to him. "So, you don't feel anything for me, isn't that right Nathan?"

"Um…"

"Don't bother. I thought you liked me, Nathan. I thought you were meeting Meredith today to break up with her. I thought you wanted to go out with me. But apparently, when you _kissed_ me, you were lying to me."

"I'm sorry.."

"Don't. Do _not_ tell me you're sorry. I'm not interested in liars, Nathan."

"And neither am I." Meredith added.

"Sorry, Nathan, but I'll never go out with you. In fact, if you want to date a girl ever again, try taking some tips from your little brother, I hear people actually _like_ him."

With that, Heidi brushed past him to join Meredith, and the two girls both turned and walked away to join a small group of girls waiting at the end of the corridor for them.

Nathan was left standing alone in the corridor, staring after the girls as they left, laughing and chatting. He had a horrible feeling that they were laughing at him, and an even worse feeling that they might be right to do so. When they were out of sight, he ran a hand through his hair and glanced at his watch.

When he saw what time it was, he swore, grabbed his bag, and started running towards the physical education centre – he was almost late for football practice.

-----------------

Fortunately, Nathan was in pretty good condition, so it didn't take long. When he arrived at the changing rooms, pretty much everyone else on the team was already there, and already getting changed, so he found a space near his friend Aaron Hotchner.

"Hey, where have you been?  
"Don't ask."

Aaron scrutinised his friend's face. "You broke up with her, didn't you?"

"Yes. She dumped me."

"Really? Huh, I wouldn't have thought Meredith would do that."  
"Well, she did."

"Mind if I ask why?"

"You're not going to let up on this, so… she knows I like Heidi. But I tried to cover it up by saying I didn't like Heidi, and Heidi heard that, and now neither of them wants anything to do with me."

Aaron let out a low whistle. "Whoa, that's… weird. You really aren't very good with girls, are you?"

"Have you been watching that show about the FBI again? Because I feel like you're profiling me, and I'd like you to stop it."  
"Geez, fine, I will… but you really need to relax."

"Duly noted. Now shut up."

"Fine. I'll leave you alone." And he picked up his things, and went to join Derek Morgan and DL Hawkins, two other seniors on the football team.

Nathan was left sitting on the bench, wondering why everything in his life seemed to be falling apart at once. Practice didn't go much better, he couldn't concentrate on anything and the coach ended up leaving him on the substitute bench.

At the end of the session, as the other guys went back to get changed the coach called Nathan over.

"Now, Nathan, I need to talk to you.  
"Is something wrong?"

"No, not really. Well, you've been the quarterback for a long time now, and your performance recently just hasn't been up to scratch."

"I can do better…"

"I'm sure you can. But, as of now, you're no longer quarterback."

"Who is?"

"I'm going to give it to Brody. He's on good form right now."

"Brody. Of course. Well, it's your decision."

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Nathan walked away, got changed in silence, and went out to his car.

**A/N:**** Okay… just to let you know, there will be some characters from other TV shows appearing for cameos in this story. **

**In this chapter, the cameos are Aaron Hotchner and Derek Morgan, both of whom appear in a show called Criminal Minds (which, surprisingly, is about…. FBI profilers). There will be characters from Lost, House MD, and a few more from Criminal Minds showing up in later chapters. **

**Also: I don't own Heroes, any of the other TV shows I mentioned, or any of their characters or plots. **

**I'd also be eternally grateful if you could please press that little "Submit Review" button and tell me what you thought of this chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

At the end of his first day of school, Peter and his new friends headed to a nearby café, which was very popular with the Academy's students. They pushed a few tables together to make one big table, and all sat down with their choice of drink. They'd also ordered a few big plates of fries to share.

Peter looked around, and saw that several other tables were occupied by students. On the other side of the room was another pushed-together long table, where a group of cheerleaders were sitting. He noticed Claire sitting with them, and then blushed as she waved - very noticeably. He looked away quickly, pretending to be very interested in his drink and hoping no-one would say anything.

Fortunately for Peter, his new friends were distracted by some new arrivals. Two girls – one with very short hair and big brown eyes, the other with long curly dark hair – came over to the table first, finding empty chairs next to Audrey. They were followed by a tall Indian boy, a boy with messy dark hair whose clothes were spattered with paint, and a petite Japanese girl dressed very smartly, who nodded to Hiro briefly before sitting down.

Hiro introduced the newcomers. "Peter, this is my sister Kimiko, she's a junior.", he said, indicating the Japanese girl. "And this is Isaac, Mohinder, Eden and Simone. They're juniors as well. Everyone, this is Peter. He just started today, he's in the other freshmen class."

Kimiko nodded a greeting to Peter, before pulling out her laptop, Isaac muttered a nervous hello before opening the notebook he carried, and while he started to scribble something Mohinder, Eden and Simone said hello. Then everyone went back to their conversations. Peter was technically still talking to Matt about trying out for sports teams, but he kept getting distracted by Simone sitting opposite. He also noticed that Isaac would often glance up at her from his sketching. They were sitting next to each other, and he saw her touch Isaac's arm gently, whisper something to him, then kiss him on the cheek.

Peter's heart sank when he realised that they must be going out, then sank even further when he remembered that she was a junior, and probably wouldn't look twice at him. Matt had realised that Peter didn't seem to be listening. "Peter? Are you okay?"

"What? Oh… yeah."

"You drifted off there for a bit."

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"D'you want to talk about it?"

"That girl. Simone. Do you know if she's with anyone?"

"_That's_ what you were thinking about? Well, she's been with Isaac almost a year now. They're pretty serious. He had some personal problems last year, and she helped him sort himself out."

"So I've got no chance, then?"

"No chance at all. But who was that girl waving to you when we got here? That blonde girl, sitting with the cheerleaders… she's pretty."

"I thought no-one saw that."

"I saw you blushing. You like her?"

"I only met her today… but I guess I do."

"There you go then."

_Yeah, like I've got a chance with the principal's daughter_, Peter thought.

"So what if her dad's the principal, she seems to like you."

"What?"

"You said something about her dad being the principal… how did you know?"

"I didn't… you mentioned it." Matt was getting very confused. He was sure Peter had said something about the girl's father.

"No, I didn't." Peter frowned, and after an awkward moment he got up to get a refill of his drink, and when he returned Matt was talking to one of the others.

As Peter listened to Mohinder telling Eden about his father's research, he wondered why Matt had made that comment about Claire's dad, when he apparently had no idea who her father was. He _had_ thought about Claire's dad before talking to Matt, but he was sure he hadn't said anything. _It's almost as if he can read minds_, he thought,_ but that's too much like something out of science fiction_.

He was disturbed from his thoughts by the arrival of yet more new faces. This time, the new people didn't come straight to their table, but found their own. Eden pointed out each person to Peter. "That's DL Hawkins, he's a senior, and they're Niki and Jessica Sanders," he said pointing out two girls with long blonde hair and matching outfits. "They're twins, Niki's going out with DL but I don't think Jessica is with anyone. Umm... there's Brody Mitchell, he's quarterback on the football team, and that's Janice Farrell, she's a cheerleader, and the guy walking in now is Nathan…" she looked at Peter. "Do you know him?"

"He's my brother."

"Oh… uh, great. Anyway… those girls over there are Meredith Gordon, Heidi Butler, and Candice Wilmer; they're the "popular" clique in senior year, which means no-one really likes them. And I think those two coming in now are exchange students… I think the guy is called Jack, but I don't know."

The twin girls she had pointed out came over to their table, DL and a few hangers-on following them. Niki – who was wearing a pendant with an "N" hanging from it, and Jessica had a matching pendant with a "J" – caught Simone's attention.

"Simone, are you _still_ hanging out with these freaks?"

"Why do you care?"

"We were friends once, you know. I still worry about you."

"Well, you don't need to. I'm just fine, thanks, and I'm perfectly happy here."

"You're actually happy with your junkie boyfriend and his little freak friends?"

Simone got up to face the other girl. "Yeah, I am. And don't you dare call Isaac a junkie again. I'd rather hang out with these guys than spend time with you, Sanders."

"Fine." Niki sighed.

Jessica looked at the others sitting around the table. "Oh, there are some new members of the Freak Club, isn't that nice Niki?"

"Well, it's interesting." She gestured in Peter's direction. "You. What's your name?"

"Uh… Peter."

"Your last name, dumbass."  
"Petrelli. Peter Petrelli."

"_Petrelli_? You're Nathan's brother?"

"Yes…"  
"Huh. Never would have thought a Petrelli would be hanging out with the freaks. Very interesting." With that, the twins swept away, DL and the others following. When they were gone, Peter asked Eden something.

"Uh, what's the Freak Club?"

"It's what the "popular" cliques call us normal kids. It's weird, the unpopular kids always outnumber the popular ones. Are you really Nathan Petrelli's brother?"

"Yeah… why does everyone keep sounding so surprised when that comes up?"

"Your brother is, like, the most popular guy in school. Didn't you know that?"  
"No, he doesn't really tell me much about his friends. We don't exactly have that much in common, you know?"

"I think I do. Don't worry about it, though."


	4. Chapter 4

Mohinder Suresh was worried. His father had been unusually preoccupied recently, and on Saturday Mohinder had come back from the library to find that someone had broken into their flat, rifled through his father's belongings, and stolen a very important document.

Professor Suresh had spent the rest of the weekend restoring order to his study, and worrying about who might have stolen the document. Mohinder thought there might be something strange going on – when he asked his father what the stolen document was, he had quickly changed the subject.

Sitting in his compulsory English Lit class (he would rather be in a science class), Mohinder explained what had happened to Eden – who he shared a table with – via a piece of notebook paper passed between them when the teacher Mr Rains wasn't looking.

_I just don't know what to do. Father is frantic, whatever was stolen was really important to him. _

_Did he call the police?_

_Yeah, but they said they probably can't do anything. Whoever it was left no fingerprints, and they were able to get in without breaking down the door, so it didn't even look like a break-in from outside._

_Oh. I'm sure something will turn up. How important can one piece of paper be, anyway?_

_Father seems to think it's important. When he was talking to the cops, he mentioned a list._

_A list of what?_

_No idea. But he told the cops that "they" needed to be warned. That whoever broke in must have taken the list to get to the people on it._

_Doesn't your dad have another copy?_

_Yeah. He tried to convince the cops to find the people on the list and protect them, but they just ignored him. They think he's crazy, just like the people at the university did._

As Mohinder tried to slide the sheet of paper with the latest addition over to Eden, Mr Rains looked at him. "What is that, Mr Suresh?"

"Uh… nothing."

The teacher walked over to their table, seeing the sheet of paper that Mohinder had tried to hide under his notebook. "Passing notes, are we? Was it at least something to do with the work? Maybe extra commentary on _Pride and Prejudice_ that you were desperate to share with Miss McCain?" He glanced at the piece of paper. "Ah, no. Detention, Mr. Suresh. See me at the end of class."

As Mr Rains started talking to the class again, Eden looked over at Mohinder, giving him a sympathetic smile.

---------

Meanwhile, Isaac was sitting in a Spanish class. He was good at Spanish, so he wasn't really concentrating, and was doodling in the margins of his notebook. He almost made it through the class without the teacher realising that he wasn't paying attention, and when the bell went he looked down at his book, seeing what he had drawn.

What he had drawn, covering most of the page, was what seemed to be a girl in a cheerleader's outfit climbing through the open window of a classroom, and being helped by a dark-haired boy on the other side. He frowned, and put his books away before starting to leave. Before he could get out of the classroom, though, the teacher called him back. "Isaac?"

"Uh, yes, miss?"

"I know you're very good at Spanish, Isaac, but do try to pay attention in class. This is the third time in two weeks I've noticed you drawing rather than listening to the lesson."

"Oh."

"I'm going to have to give you detention for this, but try to pay attention in future, ok?"

"I'll try."

"Great. Detention is after school, in room 21B."

---------

Claire Bennet had mixed feelings about her new school. Because her father was the principal, some of her teachers treated her differently to the other students – a fact that Claire hated. Other things about high school were okay, though. Her best friends from middle school – Zach and Charlie – were there with her, and she had met some new people who were very nice too.

Especially Peter.

Peter had been the first new person she met in high school – he was in the same homeroom class, and they got on really well, even if she spent most of her time with the other cheerleaders, rather than the group he hung around with. They talked a lot, whenever they had the chance, and would text each other when they weren't together.

So when she was supposed to be paying attention in History class, she was actually texting Peter to ask what he was doing after school. Charlie, who sat next to her, glanced over at her and rolled her eyes briefly, then went back to poring over her textbook.

Unfortunately for Claire, she had forgotten to put her phone into Silent mode – so when Peter replied to her text, the "beep" of the message alert was heard by the whole class. Including the teacher.

"Whose phone was that?"

Claire sheepishly raised her hand. "It was me… sorry, I forgot to put my phone on silent."

"Miss Bennet, you shouldn't have been using your phone at all. Just because your father runs this school, that does not mean you have the right to do whatever you want."

"Sorry."

"I'm going to have to put you in detention after school today."

"But… I have cheerleading practice today…"  
"You should have thought of that earlier. Detention, tonight, Miss Bennet."

Claire sighed, and turned her phone off before putting it away in her bag. She whispered to Charlie. "I guess I didn't need to wear my cheerleading outfit today then."


	5. Chapter 5

As the rest of the school was heading home for the day, a small group of students were gathered outside the classroom that had been designated for Detention that day. When the supervising teacher arrived, the students all signed in, found seats, and took out whatever homework they had.

Claire was supposed to be finishing her History essay, but she was actually staring out of the window and wishing she was at cheerleading practice like she was supposed to be. She carefully looked at what everyone else was doing – Isaac was sketching, Mohinder had taken out a heavy-looking book with "Activating Evolution" on the cover, and the only other person in Detention that day was a sophomore called Ted, who was writing something in a notebook. The teacher had been reading assignments for the first ten minutes, but had fallen asleep.

Just as Claire was starting to actually look at the work she was supposed to be doing, she was distracted by the sound of something hitting the window. She looked outside, and saw Peter. She smiled at him, and he crept closer to the window, holding up a piece of paper so she could read what was written on it.

The paper read "_We're going to get you out of there. Eden's on her way. She says she can persuade the teacher to let you out (I'm the back-up plan). Tell everyone else to get ready. You're going to have to climb out through the window, there are too many people in the corridor._"

Claire reached across the gap between the desks and tapped Mohinder on the shoulder. When he looked up, she pointed to the message Peter was still holding up against the window. He then passed the message on to Isaac and Ted, and all four started to put their things away very, very quietly, so that the teacher didn't wake up.

A few minutes later, there was a loud knock on the door and the teacher woke up, sitting bolt upright in his chair. He got up to answer the door, and opened it to reveal Eden.

"Yes?"

"I've come with a message from Mr Bennet. These students don't need to be in detention today."

"How do I know you're not just making this up?"

"Why would I do that?" Eden looked the teacher right in the eyes. "**You're going to let these students out of Detention, right now.**"

"Uh…yes… of course. The principal must have his reasons."

"Thank you."

The teacher turned away. "Uh… you can all go now. Detention is cancelled." He then sat down at his desk, feeling very confused. He almost didn't notice the four students heading for the now-open window and one by one climbing out.

(Author's Note: FYI, _italics_ will be used for people's thoughts (and the occasional note). **Bold** is Eden "persuading" people to do stuff.)

As Claire watched Eden talk to the teacher, she couldn't figure out why the teacher suddenly just agreed to let them go. She was still thinking about it as she stood up to go over to the window, and as a result she collided with Isaac, who dropped his notebook – which fell onto her desk. As she reached down to give it back to him, she saw that the page it had fallen open on had a drawing of a girl who looked a lot like she did, being helped out of a window by a boy who looked like Peter.

She looked quizzically at him as she passed the book to him, and when he saw her face he suddenly went very pale, and hurried to the window, passing his bag to Peter and then climbing out. Claire climbed out next, followed by the others. Mohinder – the last one out – shut the window, and then they all ran away before someone saw them. When they were a safe distance from the detention classroom, they stopped.

"Thanks for that, Peter." Claire said.

"No problem. Today's a nice day, no-one should have to be in detention."

"Still… you didn't have to do that."

"Maybe I wanted to."

At this point, they were interrupted by Eden. "So… what are we going to do now?"

"Well, I can't go to cheerleading, they know I'm supposed to be in detention. And we can't really go home, because our parents know we're meant to be here."

"What about the park? It's a nice day. I think the others were going there after school anyway, we could go and find them."

Everyone agreed with Peter, and they headed for the park that was near their school. As they walked, Claire pulled Peter away to ask him something. "Are you sure it's okay for me to go with you guys?"

"Of course it's okay. Anyway, you know Zach, don't you? He'll probably be there."

"Oh. That's okay then."

Meanwhile, Mohinder had a question for Eden.

"How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Persuade the teacher to let us go. It looked like you just told him to let us out, and he did, even though he didn't want to."

"Look, Mohinder, I'm just a naturally persuasive person, okay? It's a talent."

"Right. Of course."

Although she had brushed it off as nothing, Mohinder had a feeling that Eden was more than just "naturally persuasive". His only problem was that he had no idea how she had done what she did.

When they arrived at the park, they soon found the rest of their friends hanging around near the refreshment stand. Claire went over to talk to Zach, while the others told the story of the Great Detention Escape – except for Isaac, who found a quiet place to sit and was flicking through the pages of his sketchbook and frowning.

Claire and Zach were sitting on a bench together, catching up.

"I hear Peter staged a big rescue to get you out of Detention."

"Yeah. Him and Eden. It was nice of them, don't you think?"

"I guess."

"Zach… do you like Peter?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Because whenever you two are together, you get really weird. He's nice, but it's like you can't stand him."

"Look, how long have we known each other?"

"Uh… since we were four?"

"Exactly. We used to be best friends."

"We still _are_ best friends."

"Are we? We've barely started high school, and you spend more time with Peter than me. And if you're not with him, you're texting him or talking about him. I don't like that."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry you feel like that. I didn't know you could get so jealous."

"Claire…"

"No, don't. Why didn't you say something before now?"

"I didn't know how to. And it doesn't matter now, anyway."

"What? Why not?"

"My parents told me last night. My dad got a promotion, and we have to move."

"Move? Where to? Somewhere close?"

"Not exactly."

"Where, Zach?"

"Texas. Some town called Odessa, I think."

"You're moving to Texas?"

"Yeah."

"When?"

"At the end of this week."

"Oh my god. Oh my god. Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Claire. I… we'll keep in touch, right?"

"Of course we will. I'll call every night if you want."

"That might get expensive. Um…" He looked at his watch. "Oh no…"

"What?"

"I promised Mom and Dad I'd be home by five to help pack. It's quarter to five now."

"Oh. I'll still see you at school tomorrow, though, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then."

As Zach picked up his schoolbag and walked away, Claire sat alone for a moment, watching him go.

"Claire?"

She looked up to see Peter standing in front of her, holding two bottles of coke. "Are you okay, Claire?"

"Oh… yeah. I'm fine."

"D'you want a drink?" He offered her one of the bottles, and she reached up to take it.

"Thanks."

He sat down next to her. "So what did Zach say to upset you?"

"Nothing."

"He must have said something. Where did he go, anyway?"

"Home." She sighed. "He just told me that his family is moving to Texas at the end of the week. His dad got promoted or something."

"Oh. Well… you're still going to be able to call and email him, right? It's Texas, not Siberia. You could go and see him during summer vacation, even."

"Yeah, I guess."

"So you're okay then?"  
"Yeah." _Except that my best friend since I was four is jealous of you for being my friend_.

Peter frowned. "What did you say?"

"I said I'm fine, Peter. Don't worry about me."  
"Oh… I was sure you said something else, something about Zach being jealous… never mind."

"Right. Uh… I need to use the bathroom, I'll be back soon. Can you watch my bag?"

"Okay, sure."

As Claire walked away towards the public restrooms, Peter wondered what was going on. He was sure Claire had said something about Zach being jealous of him, but she hadn't.


End file.
